Abstract

This study examines the first ten years of Perth ModernSchool, from 1911 - 1921, and its role in the establishment ofstate secondary education in Western Australia. The struggleof Cecil Andrews, the Director of Education, to gain support forthe notion of free and secular secondary education isdocumented, together with the influence of the first twoheadmasters, F.G. Brown and Joseph Parsons, who were bothresponsible in their own ways for establishing the ethos of theschool which became the model for future state high schools inWestern Australia.Broad questions of the aims and functions of Perth ModernSchool and the increasingly academic elitism which developedduring the first decade as a selective state high school areaddressed in the light of economic, political and socialconditions of the period. A narrower and more specificexamination is made of the composition of students and staff inthe first ten years, entry qualifications to the school and thecurriculum in the lower and upper schools.Archival research was undertaken over several years at theBattye Library, the Rooney Library, the Education Department,the Perth Modern School archives and in the Perth ModernSchool's Principal's office. It is disappointing that very

little new material has come to light in response to theextensive search, but some small satisfaction was gained by thediscovery of certain uncatalogued documents in the Principal'soffice filing cabinet which have added to the body of knowledgeon the subject. Oral history was employed extensively and isconsidered to be a valuable contribution to the subject.Originally this study was to have covered the period 1911-1958:unfortunately when the decision was made to limit it to thefirst decade much of the information obtained by the oralhistory research method could not then be quoted within thenarrow confines of the dissertation. It did however serve asuseful background material and could be employed in a futurestudy with a broader framework of reference. The writer was ateacher at the school and while on the staff became concerned atthe number of past students from the first decade whose deathswere reported without any documentation of their earlyrecollections of school life. An attempt was made to reach asmany from the period 1911 - 1921 that could be interviewed andevery care has been taken to verify personal statements.No educational history has been written of Perth ModernSchool. This study seeks to raise certain questions and fillpart of the gap on this subject in the history of education inWestern Australia.

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